Can Twitter Be Art?

Lorenzo Belenguer, a Spanish artist leading a London 2012 Art Project, thinks yes: Twitter is Art.

Social Media is a new medium for artists as video art was in the 60's. It is very exciting because an artist can reach an audience on a truly global level. Never in a wild dream a project can be organized where people from Chile, HongKong, London and New York are participating at the same time. That it is why Belenguer decided to include facebook and Twitter at the heart of his project for London 2012: TESTIMONIES.

It started when the residents in Willesden Green asked Lorenzo, the director at their local gallery, how they can get involved in the Games. He began by devising a way to create an art project built on contributions. That was in 2009. Then, he realized that we all have something interesting to say. Once the 20 initial TESTIMONIES were collected via an open call for submissions, he realized Social Media would be the perfect tool to collect more stories about the 1948 Games and London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. A contribution about London 2012 to this project can be made via Facebook: Testimonies London, Twitter: TestimoniesLDN with the use of the hashtag #ThisIsMyTestimony and Vimeo: Testimonies London.

It has been selected by the Olympic Committee as a top 10 project from hundreds of others. It has been adopted as one of the Cultural Olympiad's key cultural projects and is now being broadcast in collaboration with one of London's major institutions: the BBC.

TESTIMONIES has now become an online archive of tweets by medal winners and the general public. So what are you waiting for? Tweet your testimony using the hashtag #ThisIsMyTestimony and be part of History.